The Hotel Charlevoix in a 1922 advertisement, at left, and in a 2012 photo at right. The hotel, located in downtown Detroit, was built in 1905 and has been empty since the 1980s.

Detroit needs to immediately develop policies that prevent property owners from benefitting through demolition by neglect.

A case in point: Demolition of the historic 108-year-old Hotel Charlevoix. The building owner, who has owned this property for 30 years and has not maintained the building, is going to be rewarded for his neglect by being allowed to demolish the building and create exactly what Detroit doesn't need: another parking lot.

Downtown has plenty of vacant lots that have been turned into parking lots already. What downtown does not have enough of are historic buildings that you cannot afford to build today. Every loss is a desecration to Detroit's collective heritage.

As a former Michigan resident who has been involved in real estate and has lived in New York and Miami Beach in the ensuing years, I can tell you that there is a direct correlation between real estate values and historic preservation. Soho, Greenwich Village, Harlem and South Beach are just a few places that have been saved from the wrecker's ball by historic preservation policies.

I have watched many buildings, many in worse shape than the Charlevoix, saved from destruction and restored to the original grandeur. Downtown is at the precipice of recovery, and allowing demolition will only slow down that recovery.

Randall Hilliard, Miami, Fla.

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Letters: Historic neglect in Detroit

Detroit needs to immediately develop policies that prevent property owners from benefitting through demolition by neglect.